Cambridgeshire PSHE Service

Learning, growing, achieving together

An Active Learning Trust Academy

Anti-Bullying Policy

September 2015

Contents

Section 1 - What is Bullying?

a) Our Shared Beliefs about Bullying

b) A definition of Bullying

c) Bullying Forms and Types

d) Recognising Signs and Symptoms

Section 2 - Implementing the Anti Bullying Policy in our School

a) Introduction

b) Policy Aims

c) Reporting Incidents of Bullying

d) Responding to Incidents of Bullying

e) Working with Parents/Carers

f) Following Up, Supporting and Monitoring

g) Prevention

h) Delivering the Entitlement Curriculum for Friendships and Relationships and Bullying in our School

i)CYP’s Consultation and Participation

j) Whole staff Awareness and Training Opportunities

k) Involving Outside Agencies

l) Monitoring and Evaluating the Anti Bullying Policy

Section 3 - Appendices

a) Types of Bullying

b) A Sample Bullying Incident Report Form

c) Racist Incident Report Form

d) A Summary of our Anti-Bullying Procedures

Section 1

What is Bullying?

a) Our Shared Beliefs about Bullying

Bullying damages children’s and young people’s physical and mental health, including their self- confidence and ability to build and sustain relationships. It can also destroy self-esteem sometimes with devastating consequences and with the effects lasting into adult life. Bullying undermines the ability to concentrate and learn and can impact on children’s and young people’s chances of achieving their full potential at school and later in life. Bullying causes harm to those who bully, those who are bullied and those who observe bullying. This school believes that all children and young people have the right to learn and work in an environment where they feel safe and that is free from harassment and bullying. The purpose of this policy is to communicate how the school aims tocreate a climate and school environment in which everyone agrees that bullying is unacceptable and is committed to tackling it in order to improve outcomes for children and young people

b) A Definition of Bullying

Bullying is a subjective experience that can take many forms. Various national and international definitions of bullying exist and most of these definitions have three things in common which reflect CYP’s experience of bullying and evidence gained from extensive research in this area. The three common aspects in most definitions of bullying are that:

• It is hurtful behaviour.
• It is repeated over time.
• There is an imbalance of power, which makes it hard for those being bullied to defend themselves.

At our school we define bullying as:

Bullying is emotionally or physically harmful behaviour which is:

repetitive, willful or persistent

harmful, carried out by an individual or a group

based on an imbalance of power leaving the person who is bullied feeling disempowered.

c) Bullying Forms and Types

Although children and young people may be particularly vulnerable to bullying as a result of personal characteristics such as height, weight, colour of hair or more structural inequalities such as race, disability or sexuality, anyone can be bullied for almost any reason or difference. Research has identified various different types of bullying which reflect different causations.

Bullying behaviour across all types of bullying can represent itself in a number of different forms. Children and young people can be bullied in ways that are:

Physical – by being punched, pushed or hurt; made to give up money or belongings; having property, clothes or belonging damaged; being forced to do something they don’t want to do.

Verbal – by being teased in a nasty way; called gay (whether or not it’s true); insulted about their race, religion or culture; called names in other ways or having offences comments directed at them

Relational / indirect – by having nasty stories told about then; being left out, ignored or excluded from groups.

Electronic / ‘cyber bullying’ - for example, via mobile phones (text messages, calls, picture/video clips) and computers (emails, website, chatroom, instant messaging).

Specific Types of Bullying can include prejudice driven bullying such as:

Racist bullying

Faith based bullying

Gender or Sexist bullying

Homophobic bullying

SEN / Disability bullying

d) Recognising Signs and Symptoms

The following signs and behaviour could indicate other problems but bullying should be considered as a possibility. Possible signs and behaviour include:

• Being frightened of walking to or from school
• Losing self confidence and self-esteem
• Being frightened to say what’s wrong
• Developing cuts, bruises and other injuries
• Unwilling to go to school, development of school phobia and unusual patterns of non attendance
• Failing to achieve potential in school work
• Becoming withdrawn, nervous and losing concentration

• Becoming isolated and disengaged from other CYP
• Developing changes in physical behaviour such as stammering and nervous ticks

• Regularly having books or clothes destroyed
• Having possession go ‘missing’ and money ‘lost’
• Starting to steal money (to pay bully)
• Becoming easily distressed, disruptive or aggressive
• Developing problems with eating and food
• Running away
• Developing sleep problems and having nightmares
• Developing suicidal thoughts or attempting suicide (extreme cases)

Section 3 – Implementing the Anti Bullying Policy in our School

a) Introduction

This anti bulling policy is set within the wider context of the school’s overall aims and values.

At Chesterton Primary School:

• We promote a healthy, safe and caring environment for all pupils and staff.
• We provide a broad and balanced curriculum for all our pupils, having considered gender, ability and culture.
• We promote pupil’s self-esteem and emotional well-being and help them to form and maintain worthwhile and satisfying relationships, based on respect for themselves and for others, at home, school, work and in the community.
• We prepare our pupils to confidently meet the challenges of adult life.
• We provide sufficient information and support to enable our pupils to make safe choices.
• Through an enriched curriculum, we provide young people, with opportunities to develop the necessary skills to manage their lives effectively.
• We help our young people to learn to respect themselves and others and move safely from childhood, through adolescence, into adulthood.
• We create a wider awareness of religious, cultural and moral values within a Christian framework and respect for different ethic groups, religious beliefs and ways of life.
• We promote an inclusive ethos and culture where tolerance and respect are promoted and diversity and difference are recognised and celebrated

b) Policy Aims

The aim of this anti bullying policy is to communicate the school’s approach to involving the whole school community in developing and promoting a whole school anti bullying ethos and culture. The policy provides clear guidance on how the school intends:

• To raise the profile of bullying and the effect it has on children and young people’s emotional health and well being, life chances and achievement
• To make clear to everyone within our whole school community that no form of bullying is acceptable
• To encourage and equip the whole school community to report all incidents of bullying, including those who have experienced being bullied and bystanders who have witnessed an incident
• To respond quickly and effectively to incidents of bullying within the overall positive behaviour management policy
• To support CYP who are bullying in recognising the seriousness of their behaviour and to offer support and counselling to help them to readjust their behaviour
• To offer support and comfort to CYP who have been bullied.
• To provide longer term support to promote the self esteem of those who have been bullied to reduce the likelihood of long term damage and also to address the emotional and behavioural needs of CYP who bully others to reduce the likelihood of repeated incidents of bullying
• To identify vulnerable CYP and those critical moments and transitions when they may become vulnerable, and provide additional support when needed.
• To ensure all staff are trained and supported and model positive relationships
• To regularly monitor incidents of bullying and harassment and report to responsible bodies e.g. governors
• To provide a curriculum entitlement framework for Personal Social and Health Education that includes learning about bullying and discrimination

c) Reporting Incidents of Bullying

The school encourages and equips the whole school community to report all incidents of bullying, including CYP who have experienced being bullied and bystanders who have witnessed an incident. The school endeavours to provide clear, accessible and confidential incident reporting systems. We encourage all who may be aware of bullying to tell a trusted adult, whether they be the victim, a witness or the perpetrator of that bullying. In the first instance we

The school’s incident reporting systems and guidance on defining bullying and recognising the signs and symptoms of bullying in CYP are recorded and communicated to the whole school community via:

• the school’s and or /local authorities anti bullying leaflet for parents/carers and children
• the school’s website
• the school’s curriculum/open evenings for parents/carers

.

d) Responding to Incidents of Bullying

The school has an agreed procedure for responding consistently to incidents or allegations of bullying, which will be followed by all staff. Direct action to respond to incidents of bullying occurs within a context, which reminds all CYP that bullying behaviour is unacceptable to the school and will not be tolerated. At our school all CYP are encouraged to report incidents of bullying whether they have been bullied or have witnessed bullying. The school will investigate the incident including the context and the roles of the people involved.

The procedure and stages in responding effectively to bullying at our school are:

• Making sure the person being bullied is safe and feels safe. When a child says s/he is being bullied (including when s/he describes disability, racial, gender or homophobic bullying), it is important to acknowledge this. A child’s feeling that s/he is being bullied should never be dismissed. Incidents of bullying reported by witnesses should be treated in the same manner.

• Establishing and recording what happened by listening to different perspectives, including those of the person bullied, the person doing the bullying and those that have witnessed the bullying (‘bystanders’). Throughout this process a written record and log will be kept of the initial incident and any subsequent incidents. These records will detail what happened and who was involved including the views and observations of any bystanders. Follow up action / strategies and the monitoring and impact of these strategies will also be recorded. The logging form covers

• Date, time incident reported
• Member of staff to whom the incident was reported
• Date, time, location of alleged incident
• Nature of the alleged incident
• Date, time when parents/carers were informed
• Details of immediate action taken
• Details of follow up strategies including outcomes of mediation and reconciliation process

When an incident of bullying is reported the school will endeavour to make a written record of this incident within 24 hours of the incident occurring. Written records will be factual and where opinions are offered these will be based on factual evidence. CYP will be invited to contribute initially and on an ongoing basis throughout the follow up period. Where appropriate CYP will be told what should happen to the information. Logging incidents helps to build a picture of behaviour patterns in school e.g. who, when, how, what action taken. Records of bullying incidents will be kept in the bullying Log Folder in the School Office until the children involved leave the school. (See appendix Bullying Incident Report Form)and recorded on Pupil Asset.

In cases of racist bullying or racist incidents, an additional written record will be given to the governing body. The governing body will use this record to submit figures in relation to racist bullying / incidents to the local authority on an annual basis. This information allows local authorities to monitor the occurrence of incidents and identify underlying trends in racist bullying so that appropriate and relevant training and support can be provided to schools.

(See appendix Racist Incident Report Form)

Deciding upon a response. All incidents of bullying will be responded to seriously and the behaviour of those who have been bullying will be challenged. It will be made clear that such behaviour is unacceptable. The school’s response will endeavour to meet the circumstances of the particular situation. For serious, persistent and long tem cases of bullying, the school will utilize punishments and sanctions as stipulated in the school behaviour policy. In new cases of bullying, bullying of a less serious nature and situations where it appears that with some intervention, the behaviour of the bully can be modified and the bullying stopped, the school will initiate the agreed process for mediation, problem solving and reconciliation between all parties. The school’s response to bullying is outlined in the appendices

This process supports the person who is doing the bullying to understand and accept that it is wrong to bully, take responsibility for their behaviour and make amends. Doing this in an emotionally intelligent way will require focusing on the unacceptable behaviours being displayed, and not reinforcing a sense of the individual being bad. The school believes that all bullying is unacceptable but that many CYP who display anti social behaviour and lack empathy for others can be helped to understand the consequences of their actions and change their behaviour.

Where CYP do not respond to intermediately strategies and in the case of more serious bullying including violence and damage to property, the school will take further tougher action in relation to CYP who have been bullying. The school will draw upon the school’s behaviour management policy and follow the system for sanctions, which includes:

• involving CYP in developing appropriate ‘fair punishments’ for those who have been involved in bullying e.g. litter picking and school clean ups

• removing child / young person who is bullying from particular groups of CYP including withdrawing them from certain activities breaktimes/ lunchtimes.
• withdrawing privileges or excluding the child/ young person from school trips.
• excluding child/young person from the school where serious violence/bullying is involved

In cases of serious violence and bullying, exclusion from school is an option that the head teacher can consider.

• Communicating with the whole school community. The school will communicate, where necessary and appropriate to the whole school community that the bullying has been taken seriously and has been responded to well. This will include talking to parents/ carers. (See Section Working With Parents/Carers)

• Monitoring and following up with all parties concerned, including parents/carers to ensure that the bullying has stopped.Part of the school’s process of responding to an incident is to seek an agreement to meet at some point in the future to see whether the situation has been resolved or whether further work needs to be done. This will include evaluating the effectiveness of the follow up strategies that have been put in place to ensure that the bullying has stopped. The school does not assume that a situation requires no further attention simply because a child has made no further complaints. Where a problem has not been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties the follow up strategies will be reviewed and/or further advice sought.

e) Working with Parents/Carers

Where the school has become aware of a bullying situation, parents/carers of the child/young person who is being bullied and the child/ young person who is allegedly bullying, will be invited to the school to discuss their children’s behaviour. The school will endeavour to involve parents/carers constructivelyat an early stage to support the process of investigating allegations and positively working together to seek ways of resolving the situation and bringing about reconciliation. The school adopts a problem solving approach with parents/carers e.g. ‘It seems your son/daughter and (other child) have not been getting on very well’ rather than ‘your son/daughter has been bullying….’. While the school firmly believes that all bullying is unacceptable and that where bullying occurs it must be challenged and the perpetrators made to accept responsibility for their behaviour and make amends, the school will refrain from apportioning blame to the different parties involved as this could undermine the cooperative ethos that the school is seeking to promote and make it harder to reach a resolution that is effective and long lasting. A record of the meeting and agreed actions/responses will be recorded by the school.

The school takes parents/carers reporting bullying seriously. Parents are initially encouraged to refer their concerns to the class teacher. If the parent does not feel this is appropriate then they may inform any trusted adult in school, most likely the Head Teacher or Assistant Head Teacher. Parents/carers are encouraged to note details of the incident to share with the class teacher/ member of staff. A record of the incident and the agreed actions/response made at the meeting will be recorded by the school and added to the school’s bullying incidents report form. (See appendices 4/5) The school will then invest the time to further establish and record what happened by listening to the different perspectives of all those reportedly involved in the incident, including those of the person bullied, the person doing the bullying and those that have witnessed the bullying (‘bystanders’). The school ensures that staff and parents/carers remain fully aware of the measures that have been put into place to prevent the occurrence of further incidents. Follow up appointments are made with parent/carers to share these agreed measures and to monitor their success in preventing further bullying.